Thursday, November 11 marked Veterans Day, dedicated to celebrating individuals who served as members of the armed forces. While Memorial Day honors those who fell while serving, Veterans Day is dedicated to those still living and needing to not be overlooked after endangering their well-being. That is why, to mark the occasion, the Veterans United is gifting 11 houses to deserving veterans.
The move is to improve the lives of veterans who have worked to better their community and military families. Comedian and fellow marine veteran Rob Riggle teamed up with the organization to choose candidates who made a difference. This is made possible through the Veterans United Home Loans, the largest loan provider for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The Veterans United provides 11 homes for 11 veterans on November 11
On Wednesday, it was announced that the Veterans United would reach out to veterans and their families in a special way this Thursday. Pam Swan, vice president of military relations for Veterans United Home Loans and herself a military spouse, said of the organization, “We as a company work on improving the lives of service members, their families and their communities, and that is the core of every decision we make.”
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Since becoming a military spouse back in 1987, she became acutely aware of what veterans and military families need, and what “military families are lacking.” So, in 2011, she joined the Veterans United and is dedicated to always think of new ways to reach out and help. “Last year, we made a big statement in trying to say thank you on Veterans Day in a more spectacular way,” she stated, and this year that has manifested into the #ThanksToVeterans campaign.
11/11 is even more special for 11 veterans
The campaign seeks out veterans who “give back to their communities” and who happened to be applying for home loans and were recently approved during the selection process. They were completely surprised to find 11 of them would be gifted homes. To select the veterans, such as Army veteran Jonathon Brown, they were interviewed and told the questions were part of a documentary about veterans who worked to further better their communities. 10 have been selected, with one more to go. Fox reports Brown is the only law enforcement officer in his town of 800 people in Wisconsin, which he likens to “going back to the Wild West days” and has him “keeping the peace as best as you can.” According to Swan, they’ve observed veterans who addressed local issues including “food scarcity to economic mobility to involvement with athletes… in their respective communities.”
Before this gift, he and his wife lived in a three-bedroom rental with seven children – all under 17. Brown thought the documentary production was simply “cool,” but then “During the process of that, they surprised us while we were having breakfast with this bombshell announcement and it just blew us away. I could not believe it.” For Brown, the representative he worked with put his name into a selection pool for other giveaway applicants. However, any veteran can enter for that 11th home at ThanksToVeterans.com.
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